Children at all levels in Hanoi can go to school at the same time, young mothers fear a new epidemic outbreak

More than a month ago, Hanoi was in the peak period when on average recorded more than 30,000 cases per day, even peaking at 32,650 cases (March 8).

In the past few days, the number of Covid-19 cases in Hanoi has decreased significantly. For example, on April 9, the Hanoi Department of Health reported that there were only 2,202 more positive cases of SARS-CoV-2 in the area.

In the face of the current epidemic situation, from April 6, students from grades 1 to 6 throughout Hanoi can study directly at schools. Then, from April 13, preschool students also returned.

Will students return to school if there is a new outbreak?

Khong Minh Tuan, deputy director of the Hanoi CDC, said that the city has now passed the peak of the epidemic for more than a month, the number of infections is at an average level and this is the right condition to “return to the new normal”. And the fact that students can go to school has met the common aspirations of both students and parents, after a very long time, children have to learn online.

The question is, after students at all levels return to school, will there be an outbreak like the time after the Lunar New Year holiday?

Accordingly, besides agreeing opinions, there are still parents who are worried that sending their children back to school may be infected. It is known that in a survey on a group of parents before Hanoi decided to send children from grades 1 to 6 back to school, there were still parents who chose to continue learning online.

After that, the school announced that it would maintain parallel teaching in two forms (face-to-face and online). For students who do not study online, they will study online at the same time as online learning.

The same is true of preschool children. Ms. H. (Tay Ho, Hanoi) said that she would let her child finish this school year.

“I’m only 3 years old, I don’t need to study much. I let them stay at home with my grandparents in the countryside to play all summer. Wait and see how the situation is before picking up your child. I’m just afraid that after the Tet holiday, I’m very tired”, said Ms. H.

Responding to the media’s concerns about the outbreak of a new epidemic, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Do Van Dung, Dean of the Faculty of Public Health, University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Ho Chi Minh City, said that the reopening of schools in Hanoi is unlikely to cause a problem. new outbreak.

Explaining this statement, according to Assoc. Dr. Do Van Dung, epidemic waves have a regular nature. International scientists have built models of epidemic evolution and we have also used these models to forecast the evolution of the epidemic in the country.

“It is inevitable that the epidemic cools down in Hanoi in particular and across the country in general at the present time.” Accordingly, after the epidemic peaks and goes down, it will continue to fluctuate, but the trend will continue to change. The general direction is still going down”, emphasized Assoc. Prof. Dr. Do Van Dung.

Sharing with reporters, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Dac Phu – former Director of the Department of Preventive Medicine (Ministry of Health), Senior Advisor of the Center for Emergency Response to Public Health Events in Vietnam, said that parents Don’t worry too much about sending your kids back to school.

In fact, recently, children at home have been infected with Covid-19 a lot (the number of infections in the community has increased, adults have contracted the disease to young children).

Therefore, Prof. Dr. Tran Dac Phu said that if children go to school and take good and organized epidemic prevention measures, the risk of infection is unlikely to be higher than when children stay at home.

“Currently, we have moved from the “Zero Covid” strategy to the stage of safe, flexible adaptation and effective control of the Covid-19 epidemic. Moving from prohibition (banning activities, banning travel… ) to risk control. Specifically, when sending a child to school, if the child has F0, measures to prevent the epidemic will be implemented for that child or that class,” said Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Dac Phu.

He also emphasized synchronous opening but also synchronous redundancy. “Loosen, not loosen,” Phu said, adding that people still have to comply with epidemic prevention measures.

Agreeing with this point of view, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Do Van Dung also emphasized, when the epidemic has “cooled down”, sending children to school is very important and currently does not pose a great risk. However, when reopening schools, educational institutions need to strictly practice basic anti-epidemic principles.

N. Huyen